The Minnesota Wild Grab A Much Needed Win In St. Paul Over The Rangers

For the first time since November, the Minnesota Wild (33-19-3) produced a 100% healthy team against the red hot New York Rangers in St. Paul. The fully intact Wild got the wheels going after a very, and I mean VERY energetic Minnesota Gopher football coach PJ Fleck yelling “LET’S PLAY HOCKEY,” during the pregame ritual. With Jordan Greenway finally back with linemates Marcus Foligno and Joel Eriksson Ek, the team took off.

With thousands of fans ready for action, the hometown Wild took the ice and brought excitement early. A fast-paced first period is what this team has been in need of for who knows how long and Ryan Hartman opened up the floodgates thanks to Kaprizov, who made it clear that the team was back.

Following the beauty of a goal by Hartman, center Joel Erikkson Ek wanted in on the action and tipped one in off a beautiful redirect set up by Foligno. From there the crowd never quieted, the team never slowed down, and the Minnesota Wild were back to how they were playing all year long.

A 2-0 lead is often known throughout the hockey world as the worst type of lead and that was shown here in the second frame. Just about five minutes in, New York Rangers’ Dryden Hunt was able to put one past Talbot on a beautifully executed 2-on-1 odd-man rush. Shortly after during a Wild power play, Mika Zibanejad snatched the puck of out Mats Zuccarello’s possession which led to a shorthanded breakaway goal. Another lead taken, another frustrating night upon us, and it wasn’t looking good.

Now, as a Minnesota Wild fan, the last few weeks have been tough and I’m sure we can all agree on that. Tonight we had a two-goal lead, gave it up, and instantly it felt like we were about to be let down yet again. However, this wasn’t the case. The team kept their foot on the gas and didn’t let up. The first half of the second went to the Rangers, the second half was all Minnesota.

Kevin Fiala regained the Wild’s lead making it 3-2 before Foligno extended it to 4-2. Fiala again tossed a puck past Georgiev to close out the second giving us a score of 5-2 and a score that would stick for the remainder of the game.

It was the greatest thing in the world witnessing our team back to full strength for the first time this year. Crazy, right? A month ago this team was being talked about all throughout the NHL for how amazing they were, the depth, the skill, and so on. Then we crashed and crashed quite hard. Whether it was goaltender Cam Talbot losing his touch, the faceoff circle frustration due to a lack of an actual top centerman, players injured, and so on it’s been tough. But tonight gave us that breath of fresh air that we needed. We needed a night where all cylinders were rolling smooth. We needed a night where Dean Evason could crack smiles on the bench. We needed a night where friends and family could go to the rink and watch their favorite team play as they should be and we got that.

The Minnesota Wild take a breather tomorrow night before heading off to Detroit for a 6:00 PM CST puck drop on Thursday night. Time to keep rollin’.